The Best Worst Day Ever
by StokinDembers
Summary: It's an ordinary day for Jade Harper, with no pressing matters or anyone to handle but her two year old daughter, Lian. When screaming fits, super market catastrophes, playground madness, and a power outage strike, can Roy save the day? (Companion fic to Father Life. Please read and review!)


_Hello readers!  
What I have for you here is a cute little companion fic to my last Cheshire-Red Arrow story "Father Life". This lovely idea popped into my head a few days ago and I figured I just had to write it down since all you Jade-Roy fans have been steadily increasing. Enjoy! _

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**_The Best Worst Day Ever_**

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Jade Harper, aka: the master assassin known as Cheshire, former member of the light, and wife to the Red Arrow, would have rather endured one hundred flaming arrows then face the terrible challenge that currently wailed before her on the carpeted floor. Her little daughter Lian sat slumped forward, tears spilling from her eyes and the most obnoxious cries blasting from her open, sparsely toothed mouth. She had managed to grab something which Jade thought it best she not have, and as result of taking it away, the child had responded with a volley of screams.

The "Terrible Two's" had struck.

"Lian stop that right now," Jade spoke, but to no avail. The child continued to cry and cry. Taking a deep, temper collecting breath, Jade left the child where she was and returned to the kitchen where a charred pair of eggs now sizzled, nearly black in the pan. Jade let out a growl and promptly snatched up the pan to turn it over and dump the ruined breakfast into the garbage. The cries continued, succeeding in making it even more difficult for Jade to decide what she would do next. She'd just used up the last two eggs in the fridge, and they were all out of cereals, oatmeal and yogurt. Unless baby food sounded appetizing there was nothing else to eat. Jade had meant to go to the store sooner, but things had gotten so busy with hero work she hadn't been able to manage within the last week. She supposed making a quick run now was in order. After turning off the stove, and rinsing out the pan, Jade went into the bedroom, grabbed her purse, the car keys and the baby bag. Lian was still balling. That kid had a wicked set of lungs. Jade sighed, gathering her resolve before once again entering the war zone that was the living room where her child waited.

"Lian, I'm warning you," Jade stooped down and gathered the child in her arms, "If you don't stop this and start acting like a big girl I won't be taking you to the park this afternoon," she threatened. Lian, having heard this sudden hitch in her plans to get her way, quickly quieted. Apparently, threats worked on kids as well as they did on adults. Jade left the house, locked the door and started down the front porch stairs to the street. Once to the car, she buckled Lian inside her car seat and fired up the engine. The store was a quick drive away and soon, she had pulled into the super market's parking lot. Acquiring a shopping cart, she deposited Lian and her purse into the front baby seat and pushed it through the automatic doors. What came next, Jade would have never expected. Twenty minutes later, and with a cart half way full of products, Jade turned away from the cart and her baby for a split second to reach for some pancake syrup on one of the higher shelves. When she turned back around, she was greeted with the sight of Lian pushing things off the shelf nearest her, spilling items all over the floor.  
"Lian!" Jade scolded in fury.

The child only giggled in amusement at her antics.

With a loud groan of exasperation, Jade bent down and began picking the items up off the floor to replace them. Luckily nothing had been damaged. However, as soon as she had squatted down, something hard hit her head and tumbled to the floor. Lian had shoved a box of pancake mix off the shelf and was now giggling. Well didn't she just have the sickest sense of humor? No doubt from her father! And to make matters worse, two ladies shopping down the same isle had seen and were chuckling quietly as well. Jade felt her cheeks flush pink and hastily shoved the shopping cart to the center of the isle where Lian couldn't reach anything.  
"Bad girl!" she hissed to her demon child, before bending back down to pick up the items and return them to their place.  
"Feisty one isn't she?" one of the ladies commented as she pushed her cart by.  
"You have no idea," Jade replied. Ten minutes later, and Jade was waiting in line at the check out. As soon as she had payed and the bags were in the cart, she was out of the store and loading up the car.

As usual, Jade picked Lian up out of the cart first and turned around to buckle her into her car seat.  
"No more trouble now, okay sweety? Mommy's already having a hard day," Jade nearly pleaded to her child. Lian was staring at her with the most innocent of beautiful eyes and suddenly all anger began to melt away inside Jade's heart. She kissed her baby on the forehead and turned to close the car door when a sudden fast movement caught her attention from the corner of her eye. She turned just in time to see a man snatch her purse from her shopping cart and take off running.  
_OH sh-  
_"Hey!" she shouted in outrage, leaping into a sprint to take off after him. This scum _wasn't_ going to get away. She had a fair amount of cash still in that purse, not to mention her license and Roy's tickets he'd won to a baseball game for that upcoming weekend! She saw he was headed to an alley way that was between the grocery store and the bowling alley next door and so she took a quick short cut between a few cars, sliding over one of their front hoods and jumping over several others with the athletic ability of a cat.

Was it wrong to say that she she was enjoying this?

It had been a few days since Jade had had her last good chase, and she was reveling in her superior abilities as she flew through the parking lot, avoiding all the different obstacles effortlessly. The purse snatcher had glanced back while running, just catching a glimpse of Jade's latest car clearing stunt, and judging by the look on his face, she would say he was beginning to think he'd snagged the wrong lady's purse. And he'd be right. He had hardly reached the alley way before Jade had caught up, reaching forward to grab a fistful of his jacket and yank him harshly to the side to slam him into the alley brick wall. Instantly winded, the man gasped for breath, eyes bulging and he clutched at his chest, having released his grip on the purse to let it drop to the floor. Jade reached down and picked it up, setting it over her shoulder.  
"You picked the wrong mamma to steal from," she snorted. If the man thought she was just going to turn around and leave now, he had another thing coming. When he finally made it to his feet, breath having returned to his lungs, she delivered a hard punch to his face, followed by harsh spinning kick to his ribs.

It was enough to send him to the floor and keep him there long enough for her to pull a pair of zip ties from a hidden purse pocket and tie his hands behind his back before using another zip tie to hook him to a metal water pipe. Walking out of the alley way, Jade came up to the closest person near by and said,  
"A man tried to mug me back there, please call the police. He's not going anywhere,"  
She then promptly walked the rest of her way to her car. She finished loading her car and after checking on Lian, who was peacefully napping, she got into the driver seat. The drive home was quiet all the way up to the last stop light. When it turned green, no sooner had she pressed the gas then a car came screeching across the intersection, running the red light, and narrowly missing a collusion with her.  
"MY GOD!" Jade screamed, having slammed on the breaks just in time. She was shaken and furious. COULD ANYTHING **ELSE** GO WRONG TODAY?! Just then the baby started crying from the back seat. The quick stop and sudden shout must have woken her. Glancing back into the rearview mirror Jade saw Lian's red eyes beginning to tear up. Jade sighed, slumping her head forward on the steering wheel in despair, her child's sobs now blaring in the background.

Two hours later, after dropping the groceries off at home, Jade and Lian were at the park.

Lian was climbing the jungle gym on the smaller set of stairs while Jade stood close by, making certain no harm could come to her daughter. The play set was swarming with other, mostly older children, and so it was crucial that Jade keep a close eye on Lian amidst them. Just then her phone began to ring and seeing it was Roy, Jade smiled. They hadn't spoken all day, since he'd left early that morning on hero business. She hadn't been _too_ worried about him, him being the amazing Red Arrow and all, but part of her was relieved to get his call.  
"Hello," she answered pleasantly.  
"Hey Baby," Roy's calm voice replied, "How's your day been?"  
"Awful," Jade responded without hesitation. That seemed to take Roy back a moment.  
"Oh, sorry to hear that,"  
"How's yours?" she asked in return.  
"Not _too_ bad," he chuckled, "though it would be a lot better if you were in it,"  
"Well then, we'll have to change that somehow," Jade said silkily.  
"Yes, I think we will. I'll be home in a few hours. Just finishing up a couple more things at the tower," Roy informed.

"Sounds good, I'm thinking I'll cook pasta tonight and-" Jade trailed off, having not realized that during the conversation her eyes had wandered away from Lian until that instant. And now, she couldn't find her.  
"Jade?"  
"It- uh... oh shoot,"  
"What?"  
"It's.. nothing, I'll see you later. Loveyoubye," she said hurriedly before hanging up and darting around the play set, eyes darting back and forth in a feverish search for her daughter.  
"Lian! Lian sweety!" she called, hoping her child would call back or come to her. The kids moved around in a busy blur around the jungle gym, screaming, jumping, and playing happily, and somewhere among them, was a mischievous two year old.  
"Lian!" Jade called frantically, her protective motherly instincts roaring curses at her for having lost focus on her own offspring!

Her heart was beating a million times per second and she felt a coldness in her gut.

Jade jumped up into the gym and maneuvering between all sorts of children, began her search. She ducked through plastic crawl spaces, ran up and down stairs, slid down poles and slides, all at the entertainment of the other children and their mothers who watched on dumbly as the frantic mother scurried about the playground in search for her daughter. She jumped off the playground, now turning about and clutching at her hair in the throws of distress when suddenly she heard a voice.  
"Mommy!"  
It was definitely Lian but her voice sounded like it was a bit tunneled. Jade spun around, looking for her girl.  
"Lian! Mommy's here! Come here please!" she called, looking back and forth.  
"Mommy!"  
The voice called again, and this time, Jade spotted from where. A child microphone pole was not far and running up to it Jade called back.  
"Lian stay where you are, Mommy's coming to get you," she comforted, now looking around for where the other microphone could be.

After a moment, she found it. It was across the park in a tanbark area and there stood her baby girl, standing on her tippy toes and speaking into the microphone.  
"Mommy sounds funny!" she giggled. Jade took off that way, relief flooding through her as she scooped her daughter up off the ground. Her breath came out rapidly as she held Lian up and close to her face. She felt like such a fool! Gosh, what if she had truly lost their child...? Roy would have killed her and she would have stood still for the final blow. Never before had she been so frightened! She vowed to never scare herself like that again.  
"We're going home now Lian," she said, waltzing her daughter towards the parking lot. Jade was quite certain she'd had enough excitement for one day. Returning home, Jade had never been so thankful that their house was so small. She brought Lian into the bedroom, changed her dipper and then spent the next couple hours eating lunch and watching stupid cartoons that Lian thought were the best thing since her milk bottle. Jade was zoning out on the couch, the chaos of the day having clearly sucked her dry of energy.

Before Jade knew it, she was fast asleep.

She woke with a start, not having realized, she'd drifted off, and searched around for Lian to find that her daughter was sleeping on the couch as well. Jade sighed, and checked the clock on the wall. It was around time to start dinner. Getting up, Jade busied herself in the kitchen, beginning to cook the meat sauce and boil water for the pasta. She put some pre-cut broccoli in a double cooker pot before leaning against the counter. For the first time today she actually felt that things were going her way. That was... until the earth quake. It happened about half way through the meal's cook time, and aside from the building rattling for a short second, nothing was broken or ruined. Then, the power went out. The lights, the tv, the clocks, and her electric stove all died, leaving the room silent.  
"You have got to be freaking kidding me..." Jade moaned. Checking the dinner, she saw that it wasn't yet done and therefore unready to be served... but with no other way to cook it, what could she do? Dinner was ruined! The one thing she thought she was finally doing right, and then THIS! Was the whole world determined to be against her?! Had there been some "piss off Jade today" pact made by the universe gods in which she wasn't aware of?

In total and utter defeat, Jade was forced to put everything away half cooked. Nothing was going her way and as soon as she was finished putting the last plastic tubs in the fridge, she broke down and began to cry. Jade had always been one to welcomely accept challenges, just willing them to try and break her, but today, she was without a doubt totally beat. Roy was coming home soon and there was no dinner made. She would have to scrounge up something that didn't need the stove or the microwave to make, and she wasn't even sure she could manage that! Sobbing against the counter top for a minute or two did little to help Jade feel any better but she could think of nothing else to do that would better vent her frustrations. If only she had started dinner earlier and not fallen asleep! If only the stupid power outage hadn't happened! If only, if only. Nothing but "if only"s ran through her head, and they were horrible excuses for the failed mother that she was. Her patience had been tested in every way this day, and finally, when she felt she could take it no longer, there was a click at the door. Cue her husband. Oh, Jade would barely be able to stand the look on his face once she told him there was no dinner!

Roy Harper opened the door.

Jade looked up and the moment she caught sight of him, she gasped. Roy stood with both hands full, in one arm carrying a bouquet of beautifully exotic flowers, and in the other a box of pizza and two cartons of ice cream, (her favorite flavors).  
"Dadda!" Lian cried happily, bouncing up from off the couch and running up to clutch around his leg with her little hands.  
"Hey sweety!" Roy replied, leaning over to place a kiss on his daughter's head. Jade still stared, mouth agape.  
"Roy-" she began, her breath having been taken in all her shock and wonder.  
"I was out of town when I heard about the power outage, so I figured I'd stop and pick us up something to eat," Roy said with a smile, closing the door and now walking forward with their baby attached fiercely to his leg. Jade walked around the counter to meet him half way and help him set his load down.  
"And these?" she inquired, taking the flowers and staring at them in awe before breathing in their magnificent scent.  
"To brighten your day a bit," Roy replied. Jade's gaze shifted back to meet her husband's and nothing but pure, unselfish, thoughtful, passionate love stared back.

With one hand Roy reached down to run his fingers through his daughter's hair, and the other he reached out and brought Jade close. He lifted his hand to her face and rubbed away a previous tear stain on her cheek with his thumb.  
"Are you alright?" he asked, whispering tenderly to her in their close proximity. Jade nodded, now noticing that she was crying again, but not in distress... in joy. She lifted a hand up to cover his and stepped closer before giving him a nice long kiss. No one could kiss like Roy, and right now, he was doing her all sorts of right. She just _loved_ this man! Never before in her eyes had she seen him as such a hero, then he was right now, having saved her from the evil events of the day. When they finally pulled back, Jade laughed and hugged him.  
"You just saved my day," she announced.  
And so, they enjoyed their nice warm pizza, watched a movie with their baby, had some ice cream, and after Lian was put to bed, they lay in each other's arms on the sofa. Roy had turned on the news, though he wasn't paying as much attention to it as he was his wife's neck, which he was nuzzling and kissing affectionately. Only Jade noticed when on the tv the news anchor announced that an anonymous civilian had managed to apprehend a notorious mugger in the alley way of "Sally's Savemart" grocery store. Jade smiled, biting her lip at this bit of knowledge.

"I think," she said to her husband, "that this has been the best worst day ever..."

_**THE END **_

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_Well, what'd yall think!? I'm dying to have some reviews here! I must know if I've succeeded in making your hearts as warm and fuzzy as Jade's is right now! :D Please leave plenty of reviews and thanks for taking the time to read! _

_-StokinDembers  
_


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